Pakistani government temporarily blocks social media

The Pakistani government on Friday, April 16, ordered the communications regulatory authority to block social networks and instant messaging applications in the country for a few hours, after several days of violent protests against France.

In a notification sent to the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA), the Interior Ministry demands that it impose a “Complete blocking” Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and Telegram until 3 p.m. local (1 p.m. in Paris) on Friday.

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For several days, violent demonstrations against France have raised the country. Anti-French sentiment has been heightened in Pakistan since President Emmanuel Macron defended the right to caricature, in the name of freedom of expression, during the tribute to Samuel Paty, a teacher killed on October 16 after showing his class satirical drawings, in the wake of the weekly republishing of depictions of the Prophet Muhammad Charlie Hebdo.

French nationals called to leave the country

On Twitter, the hashtag #FrenchLeavePakistan (“French, leave Pakistan”) was used in 42,000 tweets on Thursday. The French president’s position had also been denounced by the radical Islamist party Tehrik-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), which, since its creation in 2015, has wanted a law to punish blasphemy.

The TLP had partially blocked, at the beginning of the week, the two largest cities of the country, Lahore and Karachi, as well as the capital, Islamabad, to demand the expulsion of the French ambassador. The demonstrations were violently repressed by the police and left at least two dead on the side of the police. The interior minister of the Islamic republic, Rashid Ahmed, had the party banned on Friday and now intends to obtain its dissolution with the Supreme Court.

Paris called on its nationals on Thursday to leave the country “Because of the serious threats weighing on French interests in Pakistan”.

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The World with AFP